Today's inbox brings emails about everything from friends with benefits to internet weirdos to booty calls ...

WAYNE: I was monogamous in a 17-year marriage, including years when my wife was too ill to have much sex or any sex at all. At this point in my life, I'm looking for a friend with benefits. Commitment entails many things besides sexual fidelity and many of us either aren't made for it or have had enough of it. People like me have a right to love and affection, and if we're mature and honest about it, what business is it?

NELLY: It took a professional photograph — a headshot that my fiance insisted we take as soon as we became engaged — to show me how ill-suited we were. I was struck by the difference in the size of our heads. Mine was so much bigger than his! He looked so puny next to me. That really confirmed the strong feeling that we didn't belong together. I married him anyway and divorced him seven years later. He was a Little Napoleon with a little head who swaggered even when he was sitting down.

LENA: I was abused as a child and I've had plenty of therapy. It's helped, but I still struggle with bad dreams of being attracted to guys who are no good for me, with the occasional nightmare of my father still being alive. My therapist told me (and my husband) that girls who have had their sexual awakening imposed on them by a man they should have been able to trust (in my case, my alcoholic father) often go on to have stupid and unrewarding relationships, blame themselves when things don't work out, and are clueless about why they make their pitiful choices. I was "all of the above."

DEAN: Men won't tell women how much they disdain "booty call" girls, but they say plenty to each other, and they don't under any circumstances want one as a girlfriend, and especially not as a wife.

DELIA: My sister, who shall remain nameless, answered a personal ad for someone who turned out to want a "nurse" who would hold him like a baby while he wore diapers and sucked on a bottle as his "assistant" watched! Another man was looking to meet a woman who had no living ex-husbands. I cannot make this stuff up!

Let me add that my sister was once wife number six to a guy who went on to wife number seven before he was 52. He was my sister's third ex-husband. And she still believes that "true love" will make her happy.

I've tried to convince her that when she's happy, she'll find true love, but what do I know?

CARLA: Here's my personal criteria for determining verbal abuse: it doesn't have to be loud to be abusive and if you don't feel abused, it may not be abuse. Beyond that, I'd consider the content (are there threats or name-calling?), the tone of voice (is it a condescending tone or a deep growl)?; my own gut (knot in my stomach); honesty and fairness (is the other person telling the truth?); intent (is it malicious); other accompanying behaviors (physical movement) or factors leading up to the situation.

Got a problem? Send it, along with your questions and rants to [email protected]. And check out my ebook, "Dear Cheryl: Advice from Tales from the Front."